1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns previewing an assembled document, and particularly relates to techniques in which a document can be specified and virtually previewed prior to physical assembly of the document.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The first step in production of a document generally is to create content, such as text and images, to include in the document. The next step is to design the physical appearance of the document, such as by selecting a front cover, back cover, binding type, and one or more tab pages. Lastly, the document is physically created using these assembly instructions, together with the desired content.
In the past, when it was desired to physically create the document, the author was required to physically go either to the copying department in that person""s company or to an outside company which provides document production services. Once there, he would provide his detailed document assembly instructions and either a hard copy of the pages he wished to include in the document or a copy of the document in electronic form. In addition to the inconvenience of having to go to a remote location, communicating detailed assembly instructions to the person responsible for physically creating the document often posed another potential problem. Frequently, there were miscommunications or misunderstandings, resulting in a final document which did hot appear as the author had intended. In addition, even if the document had been created exactly as the author had intended, upon viewing the final document, the author often was dissatisfied with some aspect of the document appearance.
Thus, in each of these cases, the final document often would have to be disassembled and the required corrections made. This re-working of the document might only require as few as two or three minutes, for example where the changes involved merely substituting several pages in a small document. On the other hand, if the author was dissatisfied, for example, with the color of the paper on which the document was printed or in certain cases with the binding selection, then the entire document generally had to be reprinted and reassembled, resulting in a significant waste of time and resources. The problem was even further exacerbated when the document was large or when many copies of the document had to be corrected.
Several other problems also existed with the conventional methods for ordering a document. For instance, not only was the author required to physically go to a remote location, but upon reaching that location he might then discover that that location did not have the capabilities to produce the document as requested. For example, the facility might not be readily capable of color printing in the volume required by the author. In this case, the author might be redirected to a different location, necessitating even further travel time and inconvenience. Alternatively, the first location could accept the order and then forward it to a different location, such as by telephone or by facsimile. However, in this latter case, the information would have to be re-communicated, increasing the likelihood of the miscommunication and misunderstanding problems mentioned above.
Other problems with the conventional method of ordering a document relate to actual construction of the document. In this regard, in the conventional method the author typically conveyed a set of instructions for creating a document. However, those instructions often were not in the best format for actually creating the document. Therefore, the document assembler often had to go through the instructions and extract information to determine, for example, what types of supplies he would need and what equipment and how much labor will be required to produce the document. Based on this information, he could provide a price quote and an estimated time of completion and either begin working on the order or re-direct it to a more capable facility. However, the foregoing tasks often required a significant amount of time and effort. Moreover, in view of the importance of the information obtained, particular attention to accuracy was required.
Finally, using the conventional method, it was often discovered late in the process that the document could not be assembled as specified by the author. For instance, it might be discovered that the document was too large for the specified binding type. This typically required the document production facility to stop working on the document until the author could be contacted and a substitute binding selected, resulting in additional inconvenience.
The present invention addresses the foregoing problems by allowing a user to preview a document prior to assembly.
Thus, in one aspect, the invention enables a user to preview a document by providing a user interface and inputting, via the user interface, information specifying an arrangement of components to create the document, the components including at least two of: a printed page, a tab page, a blank page, a front cover, a back cover, and a binding. Digital images of at least some of the components specified by the input information are obtained and an image of the document is generated by combining the digital images of at least some of the components in a manner so as to simulate an appearance of the document were the document to be physically assembled according to the input information. The image of the document is then caused to be displayed.
In a further aspect, the invention enables a user to preview a document by providing a user interface and inputting information, via the user interface, (1) specifying a source file which contains content for the document, (2) specifying an arrangement of components to create the document, the components including pages to be printed and at least one of: a tab page, a front cover, a back cover, and a binding, and (3) defining the pages to be printed, including information specifying content from the source file to be printed on the pages. An image of the document is then generated and displayed by combining digital images of at least some of the components, in a manner so as to simulate an appearance of the document were the document to be physically assembled according to the input information.
By allowing a user to preview a document prior to assembly, the present invention usually can avoid many of the miscommunication problems associated with prior art document ordering techniques. In particular, when both the author and the document assembler can view an image of the assembled document, the likelihood of miscommunication can be significantly reduced.